Salvation in Death (In Death 27) - Page 53

“Am I going to dig a little, Billy, and find out you and Jolene have been breaking any commandments?”

His head snapped up. “You will not. Jolene

would never betray Jimmy Jay in that way. In any way. She’s a lady, and a good Christian woman.”

“Who spiked Jenkins’s stage water with vodka?”

Billy sighed. “Josie took care of it tonight. There’s no need to bring that out, and embarrass Jolene. It was a small thing.”

“The church is big business. A lot of money. Who gets what?”

“It’s very complicated, Lieutenant.”

“Simplify it.”

“Church assets remain church assets. Some of those assets are used by the Jenkins family. The plane used for transportation in the work of the church, for instance. His daughters’ homes, which are also used for church business. Several vehicles and other assets. Jimmy Jay and Jolene have—over more than thirty-five years of time and effort—accumulated considerable wealth in their own right. I know, as I was consulted, that Jimmy Jay arranged, should . . . should he go to God, that Jolene and his family are provided for. And that the church itself can and will continue. It was his life’s work.”

“Did he leave anything to you, Billy?”

“Yes. I’ll inherit some of his personal effects, one million dollars, and the responsibility of managing the church in the manner he wished.”

“Who’d he cheat on Jolene with?”

“I won’t dignify that with an answer.”

Something there, Eve decided. “If you’re taking that stand to protect him, you may also be protecting his killer.”

“Jimmy Jay is beyond my protection. He’s in God’s hands.”

“Eventually, his killer will be in mine.” She rose. “Where are you staying in New York?”

“At the Mark. The family was given use of the home of one of our flock. They’re at a town house on Park Avenue. The rest of us are at the Mark.”

“You’re free to go there, but don’t leave the city.”

“None of us will leave until we take Jimmy Jay’s earthly remains back home.”

Eve tracked down Peabody, pulled her out of yet another dressing room. “This place is a damn maze. Status.”

“I’ve finished the first two daughters, and I’m on number three. My take is they’re in shock, and they want their mother, which is where the first two are now. They’re worried about their kids, who are with the nanny who travels with them. The youngest one’s in there and about five months pregnant.”

“Crap.”

“She’s holding up, holding on.”

“Which one’s Josie?”

“Inside. Jackie, Jaime, and Josie.” Peabody’s face creased with a frown. “What’s with all the J’s?”

“Who knows. I need to ask this J a couple of questions.”

“Okay. Listen, I told McNab to take the husbands since he’d finished with Security.”

“That’s fine. Maybe we’ll get out of here before morning.” Eve stepped in.

The woman inside wore white. Her hair was a softer shade of blond than her mother’s and worn loose around her shoulders. If she’d indulged in facial enhancers like her mother, she’d cleaned them off. Her face was pale and bare, her eyes red-rimmed with tears shining out of the blue.

After the sugary pink of Jolene’s dressing room, the reds and golds of this one came as a relief. Under a lighted mirror stood a tidy grove of stage enhancers, grooming tools, framed photographs.

Tags: J.D. Robb In Death Mystery
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